3 Rivers: Redefining whiskey waste
3:36 p.m. Sept. 26, 2025
DUANE CROSS
MCO Publisher•Editor
Just off Highway 55 on the outskirts of Lynchburg – a short jog from Moore County High – towering stainless steel tanks gleam in the late-summer sun. To the untrained eye, they might resemble grain silos or water storage tanks. However, inside them, a natural process is quietly at work – one that redefines how whiskey waste is converted into both energy and fertilizer.
“This is nothing more than a big ol’ cow,” said Marshall Miller, general manager of 3 Rivers Energy Partners, during a tour of the anaerobic digester facility. “The bacteria eat the solids and fart methane. The only difference is, instead of it going into the atmosphere, we’re capturing it.”
The $100 million project, spread across 22 acres on Goodbranch Road, is designed to take stillage – the grain-heavy byproduct from Jack Daniel’s whiskey-making process – and turn it into renewable natural gas and nutrient-rich fertilizer.
At full operation, the facility will process roughly 500,000 gallons of stillage each day, arriving through a dedicated underground pipeline from the Jack Daniel Distillery. The stillage first lands in a 1.3-million-gallon reception tank, where it cools before being fed into massive insulated digesters.
“Eighty percent of the methane is produced in the primary tanks,” Miller explained, gesturing toward three 2.4-million-gallon structures lined up like sentries. “The secondary tanks catch the rest. It’s a constant cycle – you’re always feeding one train while another is still working.”
The methane is collected, cleaned, and sent into the Atmos Energy pipeline at a nearby substation. From there, it will primarily supply Jack Daniel’s planned JD2 expansion. This project could not move forward without the added natural gas capacity.
“JD2 couldn’t come online without this,” Miller said. “They couldn’t get any more natural gas. This project makes that possible.”
The byproduct left after digestion – called digestate – is 98 percent water and 2 percent solids, resembling a loose gel. Rather than going to waste, it is stored in a 30-million-gallon lined lagoon before being applied as fertilizer
“Our last test showed about a 20-10-10 nutrient profile – nitrogen, phosphate, potash,” Miller said. “It’s natural, micronutrient-rich, and free for farmers right now. Long-term, as we put pipelines in, the only cost will be transporting it to their farms.”
3 Rivers has already signed agreements with farmers in the Belvidere area to use the digestate on 5,000 to 6,000 acres of row crops. Early trials suggest it can increase yields of corn, hay, and cotton by supplementing rainfall and improving soil health.
“We want this to be a full circle,” Miller said. “The fertilizer grows the corn, the corn comes back to Jack Daniel’s to make whiskey, and the stillage comes back here. Nothing is wasted.”
The startup of the plant is moving quickly. Inoculum – bacteria-rich digestate from a sister plant in Kentucky that processes Jim Beam’s waste – is already being trucked in to seed the tanks. By mid-November, the first digester will be fed stillage, with gas production expected to commence shortly thereafter.
“December will be all about testing to make sure Atmos is getting clean, pipeline-quality gas,” Miller said. “By January 1, we’ll be selling it back.”
For Miller, transparency about the project’s purpose and impact is key.
Some Moore County farmers, long accustomed to feeding their cattle with Jack Daniel’s slop, are facing tough adjustments as that program is phased out. Miller acknowledged the change but emphasized the opportunities the new system provides.
“It’s not that the stillage program is being taken away – it’s evolving,” he said. “We’ve got to adapt and train farmers on how to use this fertilizer to grow cattle feed and row crops. With the right management, this can do just as much, if not more, for local agriculture.”
Looking out over the tanks, berms, and pipelines, Miller noted the international roots of the project.
“This isn’t new technology,” he said. “Germany’s been doing it for decades. We’re just catching up in the U.S. Jim Beam’s plant in Kentucky is the biggest in North America. Jack Daniel’s will be right behind them – and when JD2 is online, it’ll be the biggest.”
3 Rivers GM Marshall Miller
What the heck is an ‘anaerobic digester’
DUANE CROSS
MCO Publisher•Editor
An anaerobic digester is a sealed system where organic matter breaks down in the absence of oxygen. This process of anaerobic digestion converts waste into biogas (a renewable energy source containing methane) and a nutrient-rich liquid or solid material called digestate.
The 3 Rivers AD facility on Goodbranch Road had a tank rupture during initial testing on Sept. 10, 2024. Among the safety measures implemented in the aftermath, the number of bolts holding the tank together was strategically increased at the lower sections, where pressure builds.
Eighty percent of the gas will be produced in the insulated primary tanks – the taller ones on site – and pumped to the biogas upgrade plant (bottom right, the ball tank).
Once the AD is running, all the gas is in a pipeline. If you see “flaring” – flames shooting into the air (bottom left) – that means the gas is being burned off because it does not meet quality specifications. “If the flare is running, we’re losing money,” says GM Marshall Miller. “We’re not capturing it and being able to sell it back.”
Once the gas is processed, it flows to the Atmos Energy’s substation. The gas is metered, tested, and put into Atmos’ main pipeline.
Meanwhile, as the primary and secondary tanks are fed stillage, there is a collection of solids on the bottom. That is the fertilizer, collected in the 30-million gallon lagoon (below), then pumped to farmers for agricultural use.
Stillage-to-Gas 101
The facility will process roughly 500,000 gallons of stillage each day, arriving through a dedicated underground pipeline from the Jack Daniel Distillery.
• 1 – The stillage first lands in a 1.3-million-gallon reception tank, where it cools.
• 2 – The stillage is fed into three massive 2.4-million-gallon insulated digesters.
• 3 – Secondary tanks catch overflow and continue to produce gas.
• 4 – Methane is collected, cleaned, and sent into the Atmos Energy pipeline.
